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Featuring: Lhoris Araqen






Lhoris sat up in bed, before letting herself yawn. She looked at the time. It was 7:30 AM. Getting out of bed, Lhoris threw on some of yesterdays clothes, her running shorts, and sneakers, and set out for a run around the campus. Very few students, even amongst the Chi houses got up this early, but then very few students were raised by traditionalists. Elves are forest dwellers, and even though Lhoris had never experiences the real Elf culture of old firsthand, she did take pride in her heritage and identity. One one hand, it was nice too see all the races so well integreated that it's hard to tell the difference culturally anymore. On the other, hunting with an Elven bow, alchemy, potions, woodcraft and Faeish folk songs were practised less and less as each new generation of Elves came into the world. And that was sad. These were core aspects of Elvish life and identity for thousands upon thousands of years, and it took barely a hundred for the Fae to abandon them in favour of guns, medicine, shopping, television and rock music. Not that there wasn't anything wrong with those things. They were just...human.

Lhoris would be the first to admit that she could not imagine her childhood without her slew of Nintendo consoles, or the television. Sabrina The Teenage Witch was a particular favourite of her growing up, showing another figure balancing modern adolescence with tradition and magic, and a talking animal companion. Plus it was hilarious. Her ancestors would be loath to find out that the first song Lhoris learned to play on the Ocarina wasn't a folk song like 'Laslarin's Lamemt' or 'White Doe of the River', but was instead 'Zelda's Lullaby'.

As Lhoris was running around the on-campus pond, she felt Eldred, her grey squirrel familiar, scurry up her leg and perch itself on her shoulder. She smiled at it as she ran, and it squeaked in a reply of greeting, settling itself down on the Elf's shoulder and enjoying the ride. She completed another lap before she returned to the Pi Chi building feeling refreshed and energised, and went up to her room. After showering, getting dressed, and doing her makeup, she made her way down to the communal kitchen wearing faded jeans, black boots, and a white tank top under a rather stylish leather jacket. Ever since she'd moved out of her parent's house last year, she adapted her fashion sense to reflect the modern world she was now joining. Elvish clothes had fashions and trends just as human and orc clothing did, she she didn't feel there was a particular 'traditional dress' for Elves despite her father's wishes for her to dress in green a lot. Lhoris hated green. She couldn't make it work with her. She preferred blue, but what she looked best in was black, and she knew it.
An Unexpected Rescue

A collab between Crossfire & Silver Carrot


Qoorb faded back into consciousness, and looked all around themselves. Their ship's console was dead, yet there was still power, and the automatic emergency distress signal light was blinking. Good. That meant help was hopefully coming. How they could explain why they were so close to an aged derelict outpost, they didn't know. Their first order of business was to return power to the communications in case they were being messaged. They might even be missing a message happening right now! With a little re-jigging of the emergency battery lines, Qoorb now had a working communications circuit. All they had to do now was wait until rescue or death. There was something relaxing and zen about their very life being out of their control now, and they instead chose to look up and the remains of the attack above them...or would it be below, seeing as how from a gravitational standpoint, there were orbiting the derelict outpost upside down?

While...acquiring materials for their shop, Qoorb was spotted by some kind of pirate craft and disn't have to to leave or open comms before they were fired at and then promptly ignored, while the pirates looted the derelict dry. Not that Qoorb saw any of this on account of being knocked out, but he could see it now. The derelict was a carcass of its former self.

After one last check to make sure his suit was 100% sealed, Stryker set the anchoring system to the wall and attached the other end to his belt. The airlock door slid open and the sudden whoosh of air being sucked out of the docking bay filled his ears before being drowned out instantly by the vacuum of space. Stryker engaged his repulsor boots and slowly floated out towards the immobile escape pod of a single-occupant craft. The ship it has been installed in was nowhere to be seen, ditto for the vessel, or vessels that had attacked.

Stryker's HUD detected signs of life, even though he couldn't see anything through the small port-hole, so he slowly waved his hand in front of it. A gesture meant to mean 'stay calm, we'll get you out of here.'

He disconnected the anchor line from his belt and attached it to the hull of the pod with one of his tracking magnets. The captain wrapped one arm around the line and reached over with his free hand to his Wrist-com to activate the anchor's recall system, he simply held on as the line began to reel itself in, towing the escape pod at a slow and steady pace.

Once both Stryker and the pod were safely back inside, the airlock sealed shut and Stryker removed his helmet and radioed up to the cockpit.
"Tib? We're good, get us back on course."

He walked over the pod and cautiously knocked on the port-hole.
"Hey! You alive in there? I'm gonna open the pod."

Just in case the being inside was hostile, Stryker slipped one hand down by his holstered pistol, the only weapon he had on hand. With the other, he carefully eased open the cover of the emergency access panel and triggered the door lock override.

A Rek sat inside. Groggy and shaken up, but otherwise it looked ok.

"Hey, take it easy, not hostile. Do you understand me? Are you alright?"

The Rek nodded, breathing shakily. "Yes, I'm alright. Just very cold," it replied, before climbing out of the pod. Now that it was standing up, it was huge! It didn't take any offence at the gun. It may or may not be used to it. "My name's Qoorb. Thank you for rescuing me."

"Well we were passing by, couldn't exactly just leave you stranded." Stryker said "Call me Stryker, what are you doing this far out Qoorb?"

Qoorb looked around at their surroundings, taking in the details of the room they were in, before discerning from the color and state of this room that this was unlikely to be an Alliance, Military or Corporation vessel. It was lo-fi but not quite at the 'space dog' level of decrepit. This ship could likely be trusted to hear the truth without turning Qoorb in.

"I was, ah, searching a derelict outpost for salvage, when I was attacked. I'm assuming they were Pirates, because they cleaned out the derelict, and a scavenger wouldn't shoot anyone else down."

"And blew your ship to scrap. Yeah, sounds like pirates." Stryker said, considering the options here. They were already slightly behind schedule, but there could be consequences to revealing the true nature of the ship to a completely unaffiliated entity.

'Screw it' he thought 'Already picked up one stowaway.'

"Alright, so here's the deal. Me and my crew are en route to a job out past the edges of the Deadzone, and we've got a schedule to keep. We can give you a room, food, all the essentials, and once we're done out there, we can drop you off wherever you want to go, how's that sound?"

The Rek shook it's head. "You are very generous, but I do not believe in taking without giving back something. Is there any way I can assist you during my passage?"

"If anything comes to mind, I'll let you know, but for now, let's get you set up and get the doctor in to make sure you're ok."

Stryker motioned for Qoorb to follow him and led the way into the ship proper.

"Your hospitality is most generous. I've never experienced anything like it. I'm both thankful and a little confused." Qoorb remarked as they followed, taking in all of their surroundings as they did so.

"Well, the way I look at it, there's way too much bad in the universe. I've been party to much of it. An opportunity came up to do some good for a change, and I took it. Don't make me regret it. Ah, here we are."

He came to a stop in front of Room 10.

"It's one of the few free rooms we've got, our crew has sort of... ballooned up in the last day or so. I'll introduce you to the others later, we had a meeting scheduled to happen shortly, you're free to join us if you want. Let's see what else? Oh, galley's back that way, the door on the right just past the stairs and the elevator, and the bathrooms are just over there, end of the hall. I know that Rek are genderless, so I suppose I have to get ahead of this: It was an Alliance-built ship originally, and a little behind the times, so I'll have to apologize for the ignorance of my kind, what with the male and female rooms. Don't worry too much about that."

On that slightly awkward note, the captain looked around and slowly said
"So, uh, any questions?"

"Oh, nearly all other registered species are gendered. I take no offense. I just hope that my presence doesn't mean that the room system is too disrupted. I have no questions at present, and I will join the rest of your crew shortly to make introductions."

"Ok, sounds good, I'll see you in a bit then."

They bid farewell and Stryker headed off to remove his armor. As soon as he was back in the cockpit, he rolled his chair around to face away from Tibulass and used the resources available to start a search on 'Qoorb' looking for anything at all across public records, news articles, arrest records and active warrants. He may have shown the Rek kindness in saving it, but he wasn't going to let his guard down and assume everything was all good.

Over the course of an hour or so, his search turned up a high number of very minor infractions, most of which fell under the category of 'illegal scavenging.' There was also a single count of public intoxication that included a mug shot. It was a match to the Rek who was presumably resting downstairs.

"Story checks out." he said to himself. A small beep chirped out from the navigation console.
"And there it is, we've crossed over into Federation territory. Be extra careful now Tib, we can't get flagged en route to the system"


Eilidh was frozen to the spot as the Gladiator died before her. Of course, she had no sympathy for the attackers. No matter the reason, there was no honor in several highly trained mercenaries ganging up and killing a lone merchant with no combat abilities. As a proud Centaur, she would gladly defend any lone non-fighter from these circumstances. Yet, his words still bothered her. First, she wanted to find out if they were true. Approaching George, she is both enraged and deeply embarrassed by his insinuation that they were Bast's harem! It was only her moment of stunned shock that allowed Titanica to reach him first. George was very lucky this was the case.

"George, the assailant I fought implied that you are a drug dealer. I think we are all owed an explanation after we fought and killed on your behalf, as well as an apology for calling us a....a harem!" Eilidh was bright red by the time she finished her outburst. Sex wasn't an easy to discuss topic for a race who had a more 'actions-over-words' relationship with it amongst themselves.

@PaulHaynek@Lmpkio
Peace of Mind

Silverwick


As soon as all of the attacking soldiers were slain, Fay's brain reverted to it's usual chemistry, and mere seconds later, Fay was on her knees, throwing up behind a wall. She's just taken the lives of three men, but although this was upsetting her, she couldn't cry. She was trying to. She wanted to. But she couldn't cry. Maybe seeing so much death in the past had hardened her emotionally, but she'd always tried to save them. She'd never killed them herself, on purpose.

"Killing will get easier now that you've done it for the first time." spoke the voice in her head.

"It was easy. That's the worst part. Maybe it was what you did to me, but even though it's worn off, I know I could do that again, and that scares me. Murder shouldn't be easy."

"You are going to have to do a lot of things you do not want to in the coming days and months. Many more people will perish, some by your hand, and I will not alter your brain next time. This may not be what you want me to say to you, but it is what you need to hear. I have never been a sugar-coater."

"Thanks for the rallying talk," Fay thought back sarcastically, before she stood up and approached the rest of the chosen. As she did, she looked around and assessed the scene. Quoris was right, of course, and so was Fay. She had seen so much death that the bodies she had killed did not stir emotion from her. Besides, the soldiers were here to kill them. If anybody should feel guilty for the widowed wives and orphaned children, it was the soldiers. They chose this path. They chose to face danger. They chose to fight. The Chosen of the Legionnaires did not.

"Does anybody need medical attention?" she asked aloud.


Molly inwardly wished that new people wouldn't keep showing up. Just a tiny gap. That's all she asked for. Just a tiny gap to let her actually have a conversation, or leave, instead of being trapped in and endless cycle of handshakes and new names. It was just like when the not-yet-Runaways used to be forced to hangout during what she later discovered were ritual sacrifices carried out by The Pride. She quickly abandoned this train of thought because thinking about her parents, and about Alex, would make her melancholy. That wouldn't be a great first impression.

Molly shook Diego's hand, smiled, and introduced herself in a friendly manner, though the enthusiasm was wearing off. That's when Reese spoke up. She didn't show any reaction to seeing the helmet, but the moment he mentioned Nova Corps, her eyes lit up and her whole demeanor changed. "Ooh! I've heard of the Nova Corps! I had a friend called Xavin who had dealings and negotiations with them a lot before she came to Earth. She used to tell us the stories. She was Skrull royal family so was a diplomat a lot. If you know where she is now, please let me know."

Stop it, Molly. Don't get Melancholy. I know you miss her, but stay happy. Tell them all how you ended up here.

"I used to be in a team called The Runaways a few years back. We weren't strictly a hero team, but we did do hero stuff on occasion. We were really just a group of friends. We didn't even all have powers. Anyway, we all went our separate ways a few years ago, and I've been bouncing from foster home to foster home, whist trying to catch up with school. Then I get a call from Tony Stark a few days ago, and now I'm an freakin' Avenger!...Kind of. I'm a mutant, and as I think everyone but Diego has seen, my power is super strength. I'm also invulnerable. At least, as far as it's ever been tested."

@McHaggis@Silence Sounds@SlimJim@Bee
@Lmpkio

Alright. In the process of going back to college.


Heidi no longer needed to take classes. You couldn't really spend a year teaching a mutant who could teach herself the entire curriculum to an A+ standard in one day. That said, she would be bored without the daily structure, so was currently sitting in a History class. History as actually a rather interesting subject for Heidi, because every lesson, every textbook, every different source taught something brand new that you wouldn't find in all your previous sources. She could actually learn new things by attending the class, that she couldn't learn from finding academic textbooks and getting through them all in one night, which had been her method for passing most of her other classes on the second day, choosing to instead devote the time she'd spend 'learning' instead reading or skipping class entirely to work on her...secret project.

This History class also had the distinction of actually being for her age group, which was preferable to the embarrassment of sitting with children 18 or older, though this class also had it's downsides. Heidi was seen as a smartass and a teacher's pet, and all manner of things which the other kids labelled her in an attempt to spin their jealousy into something that she was doing and that was her fault. This, coupled with Heidi's hearing impairment, and also her difficulty in having conversations without getting overwhelmed, meant that she didn't have any friends in this class. Of course, she had difficulty making friends in general, but she found that older students would often put energy into becoming Heidi's friend, and being rewarded with Heidi's eventual ability to relax around them and say the first thing she thinks.

Heidi was interrupted by a thought entering her head, telling her that she will be called out of the class by Jean Grey, and to start preparing and packing away her books now, which she promptly did without question, running through the likelihood of every conceivable reason she would be called away by a teacher. She knew she wasn't in trouble. It was very likely to be because of how difficult she was to teach, or maybe they had found out about her little 'secret project'. After all, it wasn't exactly on the curriculum to build a combat exoskeleton in your dorm room but Heidi had dreams of joining the X-Men, and she wasn't exactly going to be called upon if she couldn't go toe-to-toe with the Brotherhood in a fight.

Wasn't she?

Before Heidi knew it, she blinked, and she was standing in the courtyard. Jean had collected her from class, walked with her, and the two had engaged in light conversation before Jean dropped her off and went to collect more students. Heidi, looking back on the memories of what she'd been doing whilst she was on auto-pilot and it's amazing how much easier she found talking when she wasn't thinking about it. Maybe this is how she should talk to people from now on, though she would prefer more control over what she was saying than that. Heidi noticed that there were three other girls there. All older than her. Non of whom she'd ever spoken to properly, though she knew the names, ages and mutant abilities of each. She paid attention to the student roster. She liked knowing who she was in school with, and what they could do.


Eilidh yelled out in pain as her side was pierced, but all this really did was make her angrier. She turned round with surprising agility for a horse yet still far more awkward and cumbersome than the gladiator. She grimaced and nodded at George's redundant advice but didn't have the energy or time to retort.

Bast chose to assist at this moment, which she actually appreciated, especially as he did so without interfering too much. All he did was buy her a few seconds, and cut down the gladiator's manoeuvring distance. "Thank you for the assistance!" She called back, as she charged again, but this time, just before she reached him, she stopped dead, hoping that in his mind he had already made his move, and would begin to make it, allowing her to see where he was going to attempt to position himself. Then, with a sudden and surprising burst of speed, she seemed to shoot forward without moving her hooves, and sliced up with a swing more powerful than all but the strongest humans were capable of. She was hoping to catch his weapon, which if he was taken off guard, he would likely use to defend himself, and if she caught his weapon and lifted it, she would then slice down at his unguarded body.

@PaulHaynek@13org


Maeda Hitomi



"Sure," Hitomi replied, smiling at nodding at Tomoe. "Let's head back to the room. If they are planning anything, there's not much I can do right now. I'll always be able to step in later, when there's more concrete evidence to use. But for now, let's go back and chill."

As the two were making their way back to the room, with Hitomi draping one arm over Tomoe's shoulder like a big sister, Action landed in front of them in a striking, bad-ass pose. Tomoe would notice Hitomi blushing a little and muttering "He's so cool..." to herself. Oh dear. She's got it bad.

"Well," replied Hitomi, impressively keeping her cool in regards to outward appearence, "There's a little sort of competition to determine the fate of an idea called 'The Komei Collective'. It's basically like a practice agency, with students from all the different classes playing the roles that they'd be likely to play in a real agency when they graduate. It's a fantastic idea in theory, but...I'm worried that the class 1B clique are going to try and use it as a power grab and I don't want this idea to become a political tactic. Enough about that. What have you been up to?"

@liferusher@Conscripts






Mako Akane


Mako began to listen to Jean's story with interest. This was her first glimpses into who this man actually was, that she'd ever heard before. When he mentioned that he got married, she started to feel a new, strong surge of regret that she ran away all those years ago, but that feeling dulled when Jean didn't go into detail about what happened next. He didn't have to. As she read his eyes and his mannerisms, his silence told her all she needed to know. She did want to know what his connection to Miss Beaumont was, but she wasn't going to pry. He hadn't gone into detail for a reason. Now that she knew a bit more, she wanted to swing it back around to flirting. She was much more comfortable being coy than she was being honest and open. Not that she had any qualms about spilling her guts, but the more Jean did not, the more curious she became, and it was rather torturous.

"You know, I'd like to have kids one day. But I'm thirty-eight," Mako sighed with a sly smile. "The clock's ticking."

Mako's buzzer chose this perfectly ironic moment to then start going off, causaing Mako to stiffen, blush and visibly die inside. "Ah...that's my time up. I need to head back to the Academy now..."

@Heartfillia
I'm going through a slow phase as I start college soon, but I don't think any of the people who haven't posted are waiting for me.
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